


Before it went wrong

by Nui (Nuiihren)



Series: Curse of Strahd Shorts Collection [9]
Category: Curse of Strahd - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Sibling Love, angsty fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:35:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28172520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nuiihren/pseuds/Nui
Summary: Kids will be kids, even in Barovia! And once, Ireena, Ismark and Doru were just that: kids running around their village, enjoying life.
Series: Curse of Strahd Shorts Collection [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2031067
Kudos: 6





	Before it went wrong

Ireena looked up at the sun of the Morninglord, shining in polished brass above the church entrance. _That’s not what the real sun looks like_ , she thought in sudden irritation, then frowned. How would she know? She had no answer to that - at ten years old her memory didn’t date back further than a year. But some things she just knew, that had to be enough.

“Twenty-five… twenty-four… twenty-three…” Ismark’s voice reached her from behind the corner, counting down from fifty to zero. Ireena could swear he skipped over the thirties... or else she’d been staring at the fake sun for much longer than she thought.

Frantically, she looked around. He’d be expecting her to hide inside, that’s where Doru had gone as well.

“Nineteen…”

She could go to the cemetery instead… they agreed to remain on church grounds, so surely the cemetery was still fair game.

“Fifteen…”

He did skip over numbers! The cheat. Ireena scoffed and darted away from the door, gravel flying from under her lacquered shoes in all directions. She turned the corner, heading for the spiked gates on the other side, but stopped as a thick growth of ivy vines caught her eye. Ireena giggled to herself. She had the _greatest_ idea.

“One!” Ismark shouted off the top of his lungs. “Finally!”

Ireena almost slipped at his voice. She was still climbing the wall, only halfway to the top. But he’d probably go look inside first, he must have noticed the hinges creak as Doru went in, for sure. And indeed, at that very moment she could hear another creaking and then a loud slam as the door fell shut again. A victorious smile lit up on Ireena’s face. She blew an unruly strand of hair out of her eyes and climbed on. Just a bit more… she could almost touch the ledge.

Wind blew in her face when she pulled herself up, scraping a knee as she threw her leg over the edge of the tiled roof. She gasped and froze, listening hard to the silence, heart racing with a mix of fear and excitement. No sound came except for the cawing ravens from a nearby tree. Ismark was still inside. Now lying down on her belly, Ireena crawled up the wet slope, set on reaching the very peak. Long-forgotten was the importance of not getting her dress dirty. She was an explorer, conquering the highest mountain. She’d stop at nothing, slaying monsters on her way. She’d find treasures and uncover secrets… or maybe, she was scaling the wall of an impregnable fortress, arrows raining down on her. Heroic, like in her brother’s favourite tales...

Mind full of triumphant fantasies, she climbed onto the ridge and stood up, the roof sloping down from her in both directions, the bell tower at her back, the village lying before her feet in reverence. And the Devil’s castle, not hidden by mists for once, visible from here more clearly than she’d ever seen it before. Ireena looked at it, a sudden wave of confusion tearing her away from reality. It was so familiar, she thought, yet so wrong from the way it was supposed to look. So troubling.

How did she know what it was supposed to look like?

“IREENA!”

Ismark and Doru were standing down below, two boys with dirty-blond hair, one tall and square-jawed, the other one smaller with a slim face and a pointed chin. But the shock was visible on both their faces all the same.

“Come down!” Ismark called.

“No, you come up!”

They did, though Ismark claimed it was only because he didn’t trust her to climb down safely by herself. Liar.

“I’m here playing with you so you don’t get hurt or in trouble, not the other way around,” he scolded, all three of them already sitting on the roof. He tried his best to sound just like Father.

Ireena rolled her eyes, pretending to sulk. Ismark was fourteen and loved to play up his authority, but she liked that he agreed to spend time with her so often. And Doru, being over a year older than her as well, was much more willing to play together when Ismark was around. Not like any of them had many more companions to choose from.

“Know what,” Doru said, “want to hear a secret?”

“Yes!” Ireena nodded immediately.

“Crazy Mary has a ghost inside her house.”

“How do you figure?” Ismark asked in a condescending tone.

“I saw it! It was watching me from the window.”

“You did _not_.”

“Did too!”

“How do you know it wasn’t Mary herself?”

“Cause she was standing outside! You recon I’m a moron not to think of that?” Doru bristled. “Besides, it was much smaller than Crazy Mary.”

“A child-ghost?” Ireena asked excitedly. “Maybe it’s one of those child-ghosts that lure people into the mists?”

“Into the ghost house,” Ismark corrected her with grace, “and they’re doing it outside the village. And they don’t even exist at all.”

“Sure they do!” Doru said. “Everyone’s seen them.”

“Who’s everyone?”

“That guy who brings in the wine, for one!”

“He was pulling your leg, idiot.”

“No, he was _serious_!”

Ireena’s gaze shifted back to the Devil’s castle, while the boys’ voices dissolved into the background. It’s calling to me, she thought mesmerized. For a second she could picture clearly how it looked inside. Then she blinked and it was gone, less than a dream, leaving her with a sense of unease.

“Have any of you ever been outside the village?” Ireena heard herself ask.

Her voice sounded strange even to herself. Ismark threw her a concerned glance and shifted a bit closer. _I know the mists play with people’s minds, Ireena,_ she heard Father say like he did back when he brought her home, _so you should try and keep all of it out of your thoughts as much as you can, then it will be forgotten in no time._ She tried, but the nightmares had haunted her for the first half year. Then she tried some more and they were gone. But her father was wrong - not entirely forgotten.

“I haven’t been anywhere yet, but I will!” Doru said without noticing the change of mood. “I’m going to see Vallaki and the Abbey in Krezhk and all the other places. Maybe even what’s beyond here one day, you know.”

Ismark angrily cleared his throat.

“Father says the Morninglord will come and smite the Devil and all that, then we can go outside the valley, can you imagine?”

“It would be nice,” Ireena agreed, still feeling a bit strange, “I’d like seeing the sun again.”

“Again?”

“It’s time we go home for dinner,” Ismark interrupted him briskly. “We’re already running late.”

He squeezed her hand as they made their way down the slope of the roof to the wall.

“You don’t have to, I’m not going to fall,” Ireena complained.

“Of course, I have to,” he said, full of his brotherly self-importance.

So endlessly annoying, yet she couldn’t help but love him for it.


End file.
